Solvent cements are widely used for joining plastic pipe and other molded plastic articles made from PVC (polyvinyl chloride), CPVC (chlorinated polyvinyl chloride) and ABS (acrylonitrile-butatdiene-styrene) thermoplastic resins. Such solvent cements are commonly made from one or more solvents for the thermoplastic resin plus a minor amount of the plastic to be bonded. Thus, solvent cements for bonding PVC are typically made from a solvent for PVC plus a minor amount of PVC resin dissolved in the solvent, for example. Solvent cements for CPVC and ABS are typically made in the same way. See, U.S. Pat. No. 5,376,717 to Patel et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,422,388 to Patel et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,087,421 to Patel et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,372,821 to Patel et al., the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. In some instances, small amounts of additional resins such as acrylic resins can be included. See, for example, the above-noted Patel '388 and Patel '821 patents.
Although these solvent cements work well, they are restricted as a practical matter as they are specific to particular applications. That is to say, solvent cements for PVC are not normally used on CPVC or ABS. In the same way, solvent cements for CPVC are not normally used on PVC or ABS, while solvent cements for ABS are not normally used on PVC or CPVC. The net result is that suppliers and customers must stock all three different types of these cements, i.e., PVC, CPVC and ABS solvent cements, in practice.
Therefore, there is a need for a universal solvent cement, i.e., a solvent cement which are useful on all three different types of plastic, PVC, CPVC and ABS.